"We are a historic carrier in Africa, where we still have a pioneering image thanks to Sabena's unfailing presence over many decades", explains Hermann Carpentier, Vice President Sales Africa at Brussels Airlines.
Lufthansa serves 17 destinations on the African continent and last year inaugurated flights to Libreville, Luanda, Malabo and Port Harcourt. For its part, Brussels Airlines is launching four African routes this summer. With the entry into service of an Airbus A330, the Belgian carrier will now land four times a week in Accra (Ghana) and twice a week in Cotonou (Benin), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Lomé (Togo). Frequencies to Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) will also be increased. The Brussels Airlines network will now include 18 African destinations.
The airline has reserved a special jetway for African flights, with a lounge for business passengers. Swiss is also improving its African services with the introduction of a three-class Airbus A330-300 on the Zurich-Douala-Yaoundé and Zurich-Nairobi-Dar Es Salaam routes.
The services offered by these three airlines are complementary. While Brussels Airlines predominates in French-speaking and West Africa, Lufthansa has a strong presence in English-speaking Africa, particularly in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Angola and South Africa. The German airline will also be strengthening its position in East Africa following the introduction of a code-share agreement with Ethiopian Airlines, which will enable it to offer 10 weekly flights between Frankfurt and Addis Ababa by June, with numerous connections to Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. This would appear to be the first step towards Ethiopian Airlines joining the Star Alliance...
